Holdaway Happenings: Physical Therapy and pumpkin pie for Dad's birthday

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Physical Therapy and pumpkin pie for Dad's birthday

I went to Physical Therapy for the first time last week. The therapist was concerned about my lack of flexibility and told me that before we could work on strengthening the muscles around my left knee, we'd have to start with flexibility. He gave me a big white foam roller and prescribed a whole regimen of stretches for me to do multiple times per day. After a week of diligently doing the stretches, I felt a bit better, but still pretty tight.

At our second visit, he recommended some additional stretches but added a few strengthening exercises. Here are a couple photos I had him take of me to serve as reference when I'm at home trying to remember the proper position.

Seated stretch

Simple stair-stepper, made out of an old phone book

Mom sent me a picture this week that really had me puzzled. I've included it below. There were a couple colorful sections, and written on one was, "Mark was here... July 15th, 2001. Exactly one week before my 16th birthday!"

I vaguely remembered having written this, but couldn't remember where it was. Turns out, it was written on the carpet pad in my parents' downstairs bedroom at their house in Provo. We had to replace the carpet pad down there all those years ago when they had been having some moisture problems. She sent me this picture because she had begun a remodel of the room, which is the room where our boys always sleep while in Provo.

Carpet pad

Well, Thursday was Dad's 71st birthday. In usual fashion, we had pumpkin pie for dessert. It's a tradition that I hope we always do. Emmie got in on the action this year and enjoyed her pie. Luke, as always, polished his off in no time and was asking for more. Logan, however, was somewhat hesitant and merely picked at his pie a little bit. Not a huge pumpkin pie fan.

I wonder what Dad would think of my family and our life. We were just barely starting out in Texas when he passed away. I hadn't even found a great place to get a chocolate shake yet! Luke was a little (big) pipsqueak, just seven months old when Dad passed away. We've come a long way and lived a lot of life since May 2009. We sure do miss him, but we talk about him often, and I think the kids will have a sense of his closeness even though they never really knew him.